NUMBER OF DAYS UNTIL THE ISRAELI ELECTION: 23
ISRAELSTREET endorses NAFTALI BENNETT for Prime Minister
Head of “HaBayit HaYehudi” (The Jewish Home) political party
UPDATE 5 pm Israel time Saturday:
Six young Israeli Arabs from Nazareth were arrested today for selling weapons (guns and ammunition). It is unclear at this moment if the weapons in question were being sold to Palestinian terrorists or to criminals–but the involvement of the Border Guards in the case would seem to indicate the former.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Last night: three religious women from Oz Zion push their baby strollers through some of the debris thrown at security personnel yesterday afternoon (picture: Zwigenberg).
What happened yesterday at Oz Zion was nothing new, but everyone is talking about it in Israel today.
Oz Zion (“Zion’s Strength”) was built over a year ago east of Ramallah and beside the larger communities of Givat Assaf and Beit El. During these last twelve months it has been destroyed numerous times by Israeli security personnel (click here to see a youtube of a previous incident) and rebuilt by community members each time.
Most of its approximately thirty residents are under 20 years old and are part of the Hilltop Youth–a group dedicated to building communities on every unoccupied hilltop in Judea and Samaria. About 150 additional Hilltop Youth arrived in Oz Zion early Friday in advance of dozens of IDF soldiers, Border Guards, and police who were being sent there to evacuate the community.
The Youth took up positions and when the security forces entered the nearby community of Givat Assaf firing tear gas and stun grenades, the Youth responded with stones and glass bottles. Five Border Guards were lightly injured and two security vehicles had their tires punctured.
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After some negotiations, the security personnel retreated and took up positions around the community to stop other Hilltop Youth from coming to the scene–but served notice that they would re-enter Oz Zion tonight at sundown when Shabbat is over to “empty” the community.
In your humble servant’s opinion, the attack by the Hilltop Youth on the security personnel was criminal, and anyone who assaulted these personnel–who were carrying out a lawful order of the Israel Supreme Court–should be arrested and tried.
However, the incident has also quickly turned political with some of those lagging in the polls attempting to wring every last drop of benefit out what transpired.
Yachimovich of Labor used the incident to attack Netanyahu: “The violence is a direct result of the policies of Netanyahu who has winked at the outposts of settlers for the last four years.
Livni of the Livni Party chimed in: “Bennett and the extremist rabbis led [the Hilltop Youth] to that hill deliberately to create friction with the IDF soldiers and a state of disobedience.”
Galon of Meretz described the problem as that of Netanyahu and Bennett: “This is a direct result of the tailwind and the competition in progress between Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett–who will support more uncontrolled and illegal construction in the territories.”
Obviously, Yachimovich, Livni, and Galon are just throwing mud hoping that some of it will stick. But as the Israeli election season has shown so far, such attempts have been backfiring and dragging down those doing the throwing. Bennett in particular seems to be benefiting from all of the criticism being thrown his way, as all indications are that his support continues to grow among those under 30 years old.
As for Oz Zion, the issue of its legality as well as that of other fledgling communities needs to be resolved in the next Knesset. It is time for the absurd game of “tear it down–build it up” to come to an end.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.